THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI (2017) ****

When the police fail to find her daughter’s killer, a mother (Frances McDormand) puts up three billboards in her hometown asking why nothing has been done.  The sheriff (Woody Harrelson) is incensed because his name is on the billboard, and he feels he’s being personally attacked.  Her shrewdness eventually spurns him into action, even though the consequences of putting up the billboards makes her a target for the pro-cop community.  

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a triumph through and through.  Written and directed by Martin (In Bruges) McDonagh, it’s a powerful, sad, angry, and wickedly funny movie.  You might be surprised that a movie about rape, murder, cancer, and racism can be so funny, but I assure you, I laughed a lot during the film.  The humor comes out of the characters’ plight and the fact that they don’t act like your ordinary movie characters, but regular human beings.  They are all deeply flawed, wounded, and suffering individuals whose pain and anger propels them to do what they do, so of course, they have to have a sense of humor.  

There are some dark moments to be sure.  And some incredibly sad ones.  I’m not too proud to say that even I got a little choked up on this one, thanks to the strong writing and powerful performances.  

McDormand and Rockwell both deservedly won Oscars for their performances.  McDormand is just as good here if not better than she was in Fargo, which is a crazy high bar.  Likewise, Rockwell is as good as he’s ever been, making what in lesser hands could’ve been a buffoonish and ugly character into something a little sadder and more human.  His racist, drunken, and violent outbursts seem to come less from learned hatred and more from a callow self-loathing.  Harrelson is equally fine as the sheriff who despite outward appearances is carrying his own sense of pain and failure around with him.  The supporting cast is ridiculously stacked with heavy hitters as well, all of whom do fine work.